1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to server virtualization, and more specifically to networking support for zone clusters based on virtualization of servers.
2. Related Art
A server generally contains hardware components (and associated software) for processing of instructions, storing of data/instructions, communication (both internally and with external components) and input/output. Due to such components, servers generally have the ability to support several applications, which are based on shared software such as operating systems, drivers, kernel, etc., as is well known in the relevant arts.
Virtualization is often employed based on servers to provide a view of multiple virtual machines on a physical machine. Typically, each virtual machine provides the view of an independent machine to the corresponding applications (executing on the machine). The underlying virtualization software may ensure that each of the virtual machines is allocated sufficient resources (processor time, memory space, etc.) in supporting the corresponding applications. Virtualization can also ensure that applications on each virtual machine are immune to any failures in other virtual machines.
Zone cluster is another approach employed across machines to provide a reliable platform for execution of applications. A zone cluster contains multiple zone entities, with each entity being potentially provided in a separate physical server. Applications are seamlessly migrated from one zone entity to another in case of failure of the zone entity/server or for addressing capacity constraints. A zone entity (of a corresponding cluster) may execute as one of the virtual machines provided on servers, and thus provides applications executing in the zone entity a view that the applications are executing within a physical machine dedicated to that zone.
Applications executing in zone entities require networking support to communicate with external client systems as well as for clustering-related operations (e.g., to migrate an application to another zone entity of the same zone cluster). Networking generally entails sending and receiving of data packets. It may be desirable to provide such networking support while meeting requirements related to one or more of reliability, security and fault tolerance.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.